Belize Blog – Belizeadventure.com

Our island is located off the coast of Belize at Glover’s Reef Atoll, a National Marine Reserve. In order to protect the marine life there, the Belize government has prohibited fishing at Glover’s reef for tourists except for sport fishing, or catch-and-release. The only exception is if you are a native and own one of the few fishing licenses issued for Glover’s Reef.

There is one other exception: lionfish — anyone can spear them because they are an invasive species from the Pacific Ocean (the Caribbean is an Atlantic sea). Lionfish are very detrimental to the native species population, and killing them is encouraged. Watch this short video of our guide, Victor Myers, spearing one.

The lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific region, have infiltrated their way into the Caribbean. Their introduction is believed to be a result of hurricanes and tank releases during the early 1990’s. They have been spotted along the eastern seaboard spanning as far north as Rhode Island to as far south as Columbia. Protected by venomous spines, lionfish are voracious predators. When hunting, they herd and corner their prey using their pectoral fins, then quickly strike and swallow their prey whole. With few known natural predators, the lionfish poses a major threat to coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean region by decreasing survival of a wide range of native reef animals via both predation and competition. While native grouper may prey on lionfish, they have been overfished and therefore unlikely to significantly reduce the effects of invasive lionfish on coral reef communities.

Help us do something about this problem! Bring your spear gun with you on one of our island trips!

The most common local resident on Long Caye is the hermit crab. They are terrestrial crabs that inhabit the island by the thousands, and although nocturnal they are encountered at all hours of the day, everywhere. Most of these hermit crabs inhabit the shells of the West Indian Top Snail (Cittarium pica), a large snail found in the inter-tidal zone on the shores of the island. Hermit crabs are seen in all stages of growth, from miniscule juveniles to giants that are several inches across. They crawl along endlessly, hardly ever stopping, scavenging for food. Their tracks are seen in the sand everywhere, with the shells leaving drag marks.

Hermit crabs have a very effective defense system. If threatened they retract inside their shell and present a sealed, armored body, barely protruding from the opening, with only their formidable claws exposed and ready to snap at anything nearby. One has to be careful when handling these crabs, since their incredibly strong claws can easily cut through a finger.

As a hermit crab grows, it needs to find a new shell to accommodate its bigger body. However, since they don’t make their own shell, they have to find a new one. There are almost no empty shells lying around, virtually every shell on the island is already taken (and we occasionally find crabs in other homes, such as shampoo bottles, small light bulbs, champagne corks, and other odd trash). So when new shells are needed, the crabs will select one unlucky, large, individual and gang up on him. Working together the smaller crabs extricate him from his shell and leave him unprotected. This frees up a large shell and the victim soon dies. Once that shell is free, all the other crabs in the group move up to a larger shell, leaving only the smallest one free which is quickly occupied by another crab not originally in on the exchange. We often see these ‘gangs’ of crabs in small heaps, going through this process.

Hermit crabs serve an important function on the island; they compost all of our kitchen scraps for us. All food scraps are taken to the island dump and piled in a huge mound. This pile could take over the island if it weren’t for the crabs turning them to dirt, little-by-little. Also at night the crabs do a “patrol” of our dining hall floor, and leave it completely clean for the next day. If you are up early, you will see their tracks all over this sand floor.

Every Friday night we host a Hermit Crab Race, a great way to end a fantastic week. This event is hugely popular, you will be amazed to see the excitement this generates!